Image Credits: Unsplash.jpg (Darren Halstead)
On Wednesday, Oct. 1, the U.S. government shut down for the first time since the 34-day shutdown in 2018-2019. This has occurred due to Republicans and Democrats’ inability to pass a bill that would fund government services for the next fiscal year, which also began Oct. 1.
The primary point of contention is over healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and how enhanced tax credits for insurance premiums are going to expire at the end of the year. These credits are what keeps health insurance affordable for those who don’t get insured through their workplace, Medicare or Medicaid, with costs expected to increase by 114% if they expire, according to Cynthia Cox, the Vice President and Director of the Program on the ACA.
According to NPR, Republican lawmakers are not including extensions for tax credits in short-term funding bills that could reopen the government, and Democrats refuse to vote until these credits are extended, also wanting to reverse healthcare program reforms that occurred under the “Big Beautiful Bill,” one of which includes changing Medicaid eligibility for immigrants. The issue of immigration and healthcare is one Republicans have been stressing, claiming that Democrats want to pay for healthcare for undocumented immigrants using taxpayer money, according to NPR. This is false, as undocumented immigrants in the U.S. “do not qualify for Medicaid” and “do not qualify for tax credits,” according to Jonathan Gruber, chairman of MIT’s Economics Department.
During government shutdowns, non-essential government services are closed or reduced, essential government employees work without pay and others may be temporarily discharged until the shutdown ends. Federal employees that don’t have their funding depend on government spending bills, such as those who work for the military or airports, will work, but may have their services disrupted. Flights have continuously been delayed, and wait times at airports have increased due to air traffic staff being limited, as staff have opted to stay home rather than work for free in previous shutdowns, according to CBS News. Already dealing with staffing shortages, this could be the case again. However, President Trump is still promising to pay employees working for ICE, border agents, the FBI and military troops, promising a “supercheck” by Oct. 22 that will cover hours worked during the shutdown and afterwards. Other federal employees remain unpaid.
Among government staff affected by the shutdown is the White House’s own social media team, as their Instagram page continues to post remarks about Democrats causing the shutdown. As of Oct. 17, of 105 posts since Sept. 30, where the page made a post saying “Democrats Have Voted to SHUT DOWN the Government,” over 30 are about or mention the shutdown, and around four posts mention the social media manager being furloughed. On the first day of the shutdown, the page posted an edited image that states “our social media manager was furloughed but MAKE America great again,” featuring an eagle, a compressed image of a monster truck, and an image of the American flag without the checkered PNG background removed. On the same day, they posted an image stating, “DEMOCRATS HAVE SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT,” with the caption referencing the alleged plan to provide healthcare to undocumented immigrants, “DEMOCRAT SHUTDOWN! Their $1.5 TRILLION radical wishlist—FREE health care for illegals, woke nonsense & zero regard for Americans—has slammed the brakes on the government. They’ve betrayed their own history of clean funding to play dirty politics, holding the nation HOSTAGE to appease their radical left base. This is the DEMOCRATS’ DISASTER.”
Various posts mention “illegal aliens,” some being, “Democrats shut down the government because President Trump and Republicans will NOT FORCE American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens,” “IT’S NOT COMPLICATED. No free health care for illegal aliens. Put America First. Don’t be dumb. Fund the government,” and “Women and children may go without food so illegals get free health care? That’s the Democrats’ ‘America First.’” Among the shutdown posts, a repeated joke contains a video of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leaders in the House and Senate, captioned, “Every day Democrats keep the government shut down, the sombrero gets 10x bigger.” In the videos, only four of which have been posted, a sombrero and mustache are edited overtop Jeffries, edited larger each time. Another post features a hand drawn sombrero with “Almost Friday” written above it, captioned, “Our social media manager was furloughed, but… Almost Friday.”
The page even included a Spongebob meme, referencing a scene where he looks at a list of things he has to do, only having “go to work” written multiple times. In the White House version, Spongebob has a sombrero edited overtop of him, the list states “Give free healthcare to illegals” multiple times, and was captioned, “Democrats’ to-do list this week.” A final post worth mentioning is a slideshow, where it acknowledges that people are surprised to see a government account posting this type of content, but still pinning the shutdown on the Democrats, saying on the fourth slide, “The Dems Shutdown means most of our team is furloughed.” In the sixth slide and in the caption, the post states they will be “doubling down,” followed by a picture of Elmo in a sombrero in front of fire.
When asked about their thoughts on the shutdown, one student wrote back, “I don’t support the government shutdown, or any, for that matter. During government shutdowns, the out-of-power party uses them to make the other party look bad […] As most members of both parties move towards the extremes of the ideological spectrum, political polarization makes it even more difficult…Furthermore, I have close family and relatives who work for the federal government, and the White House’s messaging has been ambiguous. On [sic] an X post from Thursday, Oct. 17, the White House claims that the President ‘is ensuring our troops get paid,’ but what about the furloughed federal government workers, who are the ones bearing the brunt of this political deadlock?” When shown the social media posts mentioned above, another student is quoted as saying, “I’m honestly so confused. What is even happening anymore.” Their disbelief was apparent, with confused laughter after every post.
Jack Snock is a fourth-year Political Science major with a Journalism minor. AS993182@wcupa.edu.